Mary Lee's Corvette

"Love Loss and Lunacy" Emergent Records 2006
Mary Lee and I recorded this CD at my home studio, "The Smash Palace" in the fall of 2005. The recordings were initially intended to be demos for her next release. Her manager, Mike Maska, and her label both thought the recordings sounded great and had a cool vibe to them so the demos became the master recording. I pretty much played most of the instruments except for the drums (that's Greg DiDonato from Smash Palace). I co-wrote a few of the songs with Mary Lee too. That's how we first started out... as writing partners when we had staff song writing gigs with publishers. Smash Palace was also Mary Lee's band when we both bands toured the UK in 2006.

Baldwin Drive

"Orange and Black" Zip Records 2008
Joe Chiofalo is a friend of many years. He was at one time the keyboardists for "The Saints", an Australian punk band. We met when he played accordion for Mary Lee's Corvette. Many know Joe as "Joey Pajamas" on the Howard Stern show.

Joe approached me to produce his new CD after he heard the Mary Lee recording I had just finished. We had a great time doing this CD and enlisting the help of Fran Smith from the Hooters on bass, Greg DiDonato on drums for 5 songs, Aaron Brooks (drummer for Moby) on the other 5 songs, Joe on keys, and myself on guitars.

The Sara O'Brien Band 

"Trampoline"
Sara's CD was recorded in 2005 here at my home studio. We had some different drummers, members from her own band and me, playing guitar and bass on some of the tracks. It was a CD that we did off and on over the year at a leisurely pace and the final product was in my humble opinion, a very cool eclectic recording. Sara and I are now in the planning stage for her follow up.

The Honeybabes

This is one of Sara O'Brien's side projects. A group of 4 kids and Sara made this CD in 2006. It's a collection of songs written by Sara and the kids that would appeal to kids ages 5 to 15. It's actually a kids record that adults would like too. I never did a kids record before so there were some challenges involved but it was also lots of fun to do. We recorded this CD very quickly which I think adds to the immediacy of the sound. It's not too fussy... just kids singing songs with limited instrumentation.

Mezzrow

The Mezzrow CD started off as an Anthony Bezich solo project with Anthony and I recording his songs at my studio. Anthony later formed Mezzrow so the second part of the CD was a total band effort. The challenge was to make it all sound like it was done at one time and coming from the same group of people. I think the CD really works in that respect. It has a great vibe, which I think is always the most important thing in any recording.

Contact the Studio:

If you are interested in recording at the "Smash Palace" with Steve Butler, please contact him at stephenguitar@yahoo.com